Monday, January 25th

Hello family!

Well, the most exciting thing this week is that the less-active
we've been working with came to church with her family! It
was SO great to see them there! We stopped by about half an
hour before church just to see if they were coming and the
little boys answered the door in white shirts and slacks. It was
awesome. Yesterday, we had about 25 people in the branch,
which is very exciting! We'll continue to work with the
less-active members and getting them back to church, as well
as finding and bringing others into the fold from our own
finding efforts.

I can't believe how fast the time flies! I've learned, grown, and
changed so much even since the start of this year.

So, we were looking for a part member family that lives
about 30-40 miles from our house, and we got lost, and we
ended up right on the border. Like, about to cross into
Mexico. It was crazy. I got a picture by the "Welcome to
Texas" sign. (included)

My spider bite continues to heal. However, at zone
training/interviews this last week, Sister Miller looked at it
and felt like I needed more antibiotics, so they called in some
more. So, I am once again on antibiotics for it. Exciting, huh?

Well, I think that's about it for this week.

I love you all, and pray for you daily.

Love,
Elder John

Monday, January 18th

It's been a pretty good week. I want to share an experience
about one of the investigators that we found this last week.
We called a less-active family, and we set up a time for us to
go over. Well, they cancelled on us, but rescheduled for the
next day. We went by the next day, and we sat down and
talked with a non-member sister that was living there. Well,
her less-active sister came outside and listened in as well.
Their understanding was incredible. I don't think I've ever
had a lesson where they understood as well as these two did.
It was a great spiritual atmosphere, even though we were
outside with dogs barking, and right next to the highway.
It seems as though the things that would typically distract
a lesson didn't have any effect with them, and I believe it
was because of the spirit that was there with us. I am
excited to continue working with them.

Yesterday at church, we had a part-member family come
for the second time in 3-4 weeks. We'll be going by this
Wednesday, and we're going to set a baptismal date for
sometime in February. There were several families that
came down from Laredo, which was nice to see. It gave me
an idea what this area can look like as we put in all our
effort, and rely on the Lord. I'm excited for the day when
we have that many people attending from Zapata.

My spider bite is healing well, which is good. Still not fully
healed, but that's alright. It's on it's way, and I'm glad that
it's looking as good as it is.

Hm... other news. I'm down 15 pounds from Harlingen,
which is great. Also Elder Peterson is big into working out, so
we've been working out in the mornings, and I'm noticing a
difference, which is really exciting. I'm seeing the benefits
of working out and eating healthy, both physically, and
mentally.

Um...I don't know too much more what to talk about today.
Things are just going alright.

Well, I appreciate all the love and support from home. I love you all.

-Elder John

(These pictures are from a birthday party for a less-active member.)

Monday, January 11th

(Subject line of email was: 01/11/10)

Look at the date. It's a palindrome today. That's exciting.

Well, things are going well here in Zapata. Not a whole lot
has changed. We're still working and teaching and all. We
didn't have any investigators at church yesterday
unfortunately. We aren't sure why our investigators didn't
come. I guess we'll find out tonight when we go over again.

This last week we had zone conference. We were focusing on
chapter 8 of Preach My Gospel; "How Do I Use Time Wisely?" I
was amazed to find insight into this chapter. More than just
updating area books and teaching records, and what not.
There's so much that can be learned from it. It's one of
President Miller's favorite chapters of Preach My Gospel.
President Miller brings up chapter four of Abraham a lot
when we talk about planning. How our goals are our
spiritual plans before the actual creation. It's amazing to see
some of the parallelisms. It's hard to explain in writing, but I
really like chapter 8.

Well, I can't believe it's already mid-January. The time
seems to go by faster and faster.

My spider bite is healing very nicely...(see picture) It looks
like I'll have a pretty good scar, and a great story to go along
with it. (Take that, Joe! :P) Well, I love you all.

Love,
Elder John

Monday, January 4th

Wow! 2010! How crazy. I come home this year. That's nuts.

Well, this week was good. We kept busy. We're working hard,
and finding some great people.

I'll give a little update on my spider bite. It's definitely
healing, as you can tell from the picture. I'm glad that it
didn't get any worse than it did. How grateful I am for
medicine!

It was so good to talk to you all on Christmas. It was great
to hear from y'all again. It sounds as though everyone is
doing well, which as always a great thing to hear.

We're working with some great families here in Zapata.
One of them, Carlos and Bertha, were attending another
church when we found them. Well, they told us on
Saturday that they're other church closed down. We
didn't know whether to celebrate, or to give our
condolences. However, they weren't there yesterday, so
we'll need to find out what happened with them.

We did have an investigator come to church yesterday
though. Apparantly this part-member family moved up
from Brownsville just recently. He's a member, his wife
isn't, so we'll be working with them.

Well, I guess pictures are worth 1,000 words, so this will
be a really long email.

I love you all!

Love,
Elder John

P.S.The longhorns are mine. I got them this last week.
Now I need to figure out shipping them home.

There's an updated picture of my spider bite.
The others I think are self-explanatory. :)